Podcast

Glow for Hope Sparking Conversation on Mental Health Podcast

PODCAST - Glow For Hope: Sparking Conversation on Mental Health

Mental health touches every one of us. It’s part of being human.

Every day, people quietly carry anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, addiction, loneliness, burnout, and suicidal thoughts—often believing they’re the only ones.

They’re not.

Glow For Hope: Sparking Conversation on Mental Health breaks through the silence with honest conversations that remind us we’re never as alone as we think.

In every episode, host Kelly Poelker sits down with mental health professionals, suicide attempt survivors, suicide loss survivors, advocates, first responders, authors, and people with lived experience to explore the realities of mental health, suicide prevention, resilience, healing, and hope.

These aren’t interviews.

They’re conversations.

The kind that help us better understand ourselves, support the people we love, challenge stigma, and build stronger communities—one story at a time.

Whether you’re navigating your own mental health journey, grieving someone you’ve lost, supporting a loved one, or simply believe conversations can change lives, you’ll find authentic stories that educate, encourage, and remind you that hope is always worth sharing.

Because sometimes the most powerful thing we can do…

is start the conversation.

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Kelly Poelker: Suicide Prevention Before Crisis

Kelly Poelker: Suicide Prevention Before Crisis

What do car shows, volleyball tournaments and sensory kits have to do with suicide prevention? Kelly Poelker explains why Glow For Hope focuses on connection, community and mental health conversations long before crisis.

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Kelly Poelker: Call Me If You Need Anything

Kelly Poelker: Call Me If You Need Anything

We say “Call me if you need anything” because we care. But what if the person struggling can’t ask? Kelly Poelker explores how to offer meaningful support, listen without trying to fix everything and start difficult conversations.

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Dave Raymond: The Man Inside the Phillie Phanatic

Dave Raymond: The Man Inside the Phillie Phanatic

For 16 years, Dave Raymond brought the Phillie Phanatic to life. But when grief, the end of his marriage and hopelessness collided, the character known for bringing joy to millions unexpectedly became a lifeline for the man inside the costume. Dave shares his deeply personal journey and why today he believes reaching out must work both ways.

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Mariah Sheridan Runions: When Loving Someone Isn’t Enough to Save Them

Mariah Sheridan Runions: When Loving Someone Isn’t Enough to Save Them

Mariah Sheridan Runions grew up surrounded by mental illness and later found herself trying to keep someone she loved alive. After losing him to suicide, she carried guilt for years. Mariah shares what she now understands about responsibility, suicidal thoughts, choosing yourself, self-love and why taking care of yourself isn’t selfish.

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Dr. Calvin Spinks: When Being Needed Becomes Your Identity

Dr. Calvin Spinks: When Being Needed Becomes Your Identity

Dr. Calvin Spinks shares how childhood rejection, racism, instability, and anxious attachment shaped his need to help, fix, and carry everyone around him. In this honest conversation, he explores people pleasing, boundaries, self-worth, unhealthy coping, and what it took to stop being the tugboat—and become the lighthouse.

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Camille Ellis: Don’t Forget What You Had

Camille Ellis: Don’t Forget What You Had

After losing her son Wes to suicide, Camille Ellis discovered one simple shift in perspective that changed everything: don’t become so focused on what you lost that you forget what you had. In this heartfelt conversation, she shares how that realization helped her carry love forward, embrace healing, and rediscover joy without leaving her son behind.

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Jodi Gardner: Growing Older Doesn’t Mean Growing Invisible

Jodi Gardner: Growing Older Doesn’t Mean Growing Invisible

Growing older doesn’t mean growing invisible.

In this episode of Glow For Hope: Sparking Conversation on Mental Health, Kelly Poelker sits down with Jodi Gardner, Executive Director of the St. Clair County Mental Health Board, for a heartfelt conversation about older adult mental health, caregiving, isolation, purpose, and suicide prevention. Together they explore why every person deserves to feel seen, heard, and valued at every stage of life, and how meaningful conversations can strengthen families, support caregivers, and remind older adults that their stories—and their lives—still matter.

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